Mars rover Spirit hasn't communicated with a spacecraft despite being told to do so

Engineers
from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory confirmed last week that the
Mars rover Spirit didn't communicate with the Mars Odyssey spacecraft
as scheduled. Spirit, which is likely in power-saving hibernation
mode, has endured yet another harsh time on Mars against all odds --
though it is believed the rover will wake up at some
point.

"We are
checking other less likely possibilities for the missed
communication, but this probably means that Spirit tripped a
low-power fault sometime between the last downlink on March 22 and
yesterday," said John Callas, Mars rover project manager, in a
statement.

Spirit faces an even bigger problem now that less
sunlight is hitting its solar panels, which means the rover's battery
power is dwindling. There was previous concern when a
strong dust
storm hit the Red Planet, covering the rover and its solar
panels. The rover became stuck in early 2010 -- and remains
stuck -- though researchers hope it will still be able to conduct
research on a limited basis.

NASA officials will continue to
wait to hear back from Spirit, but will have to wait until its
battery is fully charged.

Both Spirit and Opportunity
launched from Earth around seven years ago, and finally made it to
Mars in early 2004. Each rover has explored the Martian surface
in an effort to learn as much as possible about the Red Planet.

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